Flash Flood

There was a pretty intense line of thunderstorms that passed through here on Saturday.  The day was beautiful all day and then all of a sudden, around 9:00 p.m. right after Ben went to bed it got very dark all of a sudden.  We had heard thunder and seen some warnings on TV but it was like instantaneous darkness.  Bismarck is right on the Western edge of the central time zone so you can still see light in the sky near 11 p.m. this time of year so the darkness that early was noticeable.  All of a sudden there was strong winds and a torrential downpour and the street in front of the house looked like a river.  Since Bismarck is not flat like the Eastern cities many people associate with N.D. I have grown used to the water draining fast down our street when it rains but I have never seen it like this.  It was looked white water rapids and it sounded like them too.   I tried to get some pictures but they didn't really turn out.  You can see the raging water in front of Justin's old Ford Escort, which gets a street parking spot in the summer.  

 

In this one you can kind of see how high the water was around the front tire. 

Here you can see the line of debris where water ran through the yard.  The carpet in the car was wet.  This car is pretty old and often won't start after having a wash so we will see how this affected it whenever Justin decides to drive it again.  It hasn't moved in over a month since he took it out of the garage this spring. 

I actually forgot about the flash flood until this morning when my mom called and said that someone from there had been here over the weekend and had to get a ride home because his car had too much water damage to drive.  I guess it's a good thing we live at a high point in town. 

Here are a few recent pictures of Ben.  He is getting really naughty.  He figured out that he can climb on the kitchen chairs and get on the table and also he climbs on the toilet, using the lock that is meant to deter him as a handle to pull himself up, and stands on it and gets busy emptying out the cupboard.  It is only a matter of time before he hurts himself. 

Here he is setting off my car alarm.

After a particularly unruly lime yogurt snack. 

He has started carrying his riding tractor around the room and putting it in my lap.  It's not that heavy but it still looks funny.  It has wheels for a reason Ben!

 

Oh, thank you!  I wanted to hold that riding tractor in my lap!

 

In his toy basket, which is usually empty of toys because they are all over the floor.

 

Oh, and if you were worried, the mice have been caught.  I have been avoiding the area of the garage where they were living and yesterday Justin was going to try to catch them again and found that two of the traps had caught two mice each.  Four mice with two traps!  I know that the bait was gone when I looked last so they must have just gone back for more.  A fifth one had died on its own.  There was a hole in a bag of fertilizer that was clearly made by mice so we think it poisoned itself by eating fertilizer.  Way to go, GENIUS!  Haha.  We figured out that they have been eating corn out of a bag of dried corn that Justin has for the purpose of attracting deer to his trail camera.